Alaska's food stamp backlog cut tens of thousands out of program last year

Alaska saw a drop in the number of food stamp recipients over the past year far larger than any other state as processing delays caused low-income households to miss out on their benefits.

While more than half of states actually had an increase in SNAP beneficiaries, among those that saw a decline none came anywhere close to the 69% drop in participation Alaska experienced through this spring.

Behind Alaska, Maryland saw a 21% decrease, Arkansas saw a 19% decrease and New Jersey saw a 14% decrease between March 2022 and March 2023.

Those numbers, from the most recent publicly available data fr...